1/43 Model Review: 1998 X Wings (Tower Wings)

In 1997, Tyrrell pioneered the tower wing, commonly known as the X Wing, because of the angle of the support struts when viewed from the front. Though this would be the final Tyrrell with Ken Tyrrell at the helm before being bought by British American Tobacco (soon to be called BAR), Harvey Postlethwaite still came  out with some unique design features on a shoestring budget, for example the nose along with the nose wings, and the skinny rear end, refined from the previous couple of cars. Looking to make use of every area in the rules to look for more grip, the side of the driver's head allowed for wings to be run. In fact the 1997 version was made from cut up bits of old front wings! You can read a bit more about it here: www.racefans.net

Minichamps 430970018

Tyrrell were the only team to run with the X Wing for the 1997 season and they continued with it on their 1998 car.

Minichamps 430980050

Soon, other teams started to adopt their over versions onto their cars. Sauber's solution looks particularly clumsy. Indeed one of theirs was knocked off in the pitlane by one of the air lines.

Minichamps 430980045

Prost's version was a bit more elegant with a curved support. What was unique about Prost's solution was that they only ran it on one side of the car because it got in the way of refueling (the Minichamps car having it on both sides), owing to their sidepods beginning further back.

Minichamps 430980041

Ferrari were the only top team to adopt the X Wing, and with such a huge support, it was probably the most intrusive and ugly.

Minichamps 510984333

Jordan's version was perhaps the most elegant of the lot, not that they looked good at all. I mean it's like looking at a stool chart and picking your favourite.

Add caption

Most of the objection and outcry at the time was how bad they looked, but the FIA couldn't ban them because of aesthetics. It was bad enough we had to get used to skinny cars, smaller wings and grooved tyres, and these were just a step too far. So it was after round 3 at Imola, when the Sauber one got knocked off, that they were eventually banned on safety grounds.

Minichamps, as you can see above, produced versions from each of the cars and are fairly hard to find, which pushes the price up a little. I got them all as a point of interest, but quickly sold them because they are dreadful to look at.